Ronda Chervin received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University and an MA in Religious Studies from Notre Dame Apostolic Institute. A widow, mother, and grandmother, she currently teaches philosophy at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut. Write to her at chervinronda@gmail.com.

Far from dreading an encounter with the Iroquois, Fr. Garnier often told us he would be quite content to fall into the hands of the Iroquois and remain their prisoner if—while they were torturing him—he at least had a chance of instructing them as long as his torments lasted. If they allowed him to live, it would afford him a golden opportunity to work for their conversion, which was now impossible, since the gateway to their country was closed as long as they were our enemies.
— Father Ragueneau (Jesuit Relations)

A poem by a dear friend that I found in my old journal (she prefers to be anonymous):

“The tabernacle is small but holds all eternity.I want to shrink to fit in there –I want to be so small I could be heldIn someone’s palm and not be recognized.I could get lost in the ciborium and tossed onto a paten –Chosen out of all the other hostsNot because I was so much moreDelectable but because I wasUtterly undetectable.An indistinct wafer consumed by love of God.”

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OME PEOPLE think that we don’t need to be personally grateful to God since whatever He does is for everyone, such as Christ dying on the cross. I thought, when someone said this, that it is like a child who would say I don’t have to thank you Mom/Dad for the dinner because you made it for the whole family.

Rabbi Zolli, the famous head rabbi of Rome who converted partly under the influence of Pius XII, in his book about Jesus says that Jesus would have sung his sermons!

I read about a woman who lost in an accident a child, a husband, then later another child, then two other sons, but remained trusting and holy to the end. The story got me thinking of how many people I know seek holiness, openly and sometimes almost desperately. How much easier to feign mediocrity of intent so that the gap between wish and reality would not be so obvious and beckoning of critique! Here I am, Jesus, your failure. But, no matter what, never let me set my sights so low that I cannot fail.

About recent events: someone asked me my opinion of a video of Voris concerning a document out of Poland regarding the so-called homo-lobby in the Church. I don’t buy into the theory that it is behind all dissent since it seems to me that the contraception issue is what pushed many lay people into gradually accepting dissent on all other sexual issues over a few decades. We are promised that “the gates of hell will not prevail.” I think it is “heretical” to even think that our Church itself could be destroyed by anything or that there can ever be a change the moral teaching against any of the sexual sins. My take is that many more dissenting or lukewarm Catholics will drop out gradually and that the remnant of faithful Catholics will build up out of places like Holy Apostles all over the world.

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